morpheus x reader oneshots & headcanons

being the one who releases morpheus 5

When you woke up, he wasn't there anymore but it was hardly surprising - an Eldritch king simply had to be a busy fellow. To your surprise, the mess of the previous day was long gone: jars and cans were placed inside the antique dressed, although you could only guess that they weren't sorted according to your previously established order. After all, Morpheus had no way of knowing about that.

Looking around the room, you noticed that the newspaper from the previous day lay unfolded on your desk. Weird, you thought as you recalled seeing it folded in half and untouched when your father's curse yet again attempted to take your life. You couldn't judge the informative value of the article as you didn't follow the story. Despite your lack of interest in the piece itself, there was a detail that felt like enlightenment: a picture of Ethel standing next to your father taken on an occasion you couldn't quite recall. Skimming through the article, it appeared that she was a suspect in the theft but due to no substantial evidence, the charge had been dropped.

"Of course you did, dear," you whispered to yourself already imagining the havoc Morpheus was wreaking that very moment to get his gem back. Honestly, it was an interesting affliction of his: to be simultaneously regal and ruthless. Or, perhaps, the coexistence of those traits was to be expected from a king and your anticipation for a nobleman was simply misguided.

Hours had gone by while you were naively hoping for Morpheus to come back. Your reason was telling you to forget such nonsense as he was quite adamant about not making you part of his mission to retrieve his tools. Perhaps you shouldn't be expecting to see him for another few years. A needle of sadness or longing pricked your heart. After enduring such severe loneliness, you had someone akin to a friend for a while only for him to disappear like a dream at the break of dawn. That emptiness of your house has grown so familiar to you that when it was broken for one day, it became as unbearable as it was the first time you had felt it like cold weather feels the most insufferable after one leaves the warmth of their home.

Suddenly, rushed footsteps resounded in your house - if he did come back, something terrible must have happened to elicit such loud anger from him. He marched through the kitchen and hall only to find you right where he had left you in the living room. From the very first look in his direction, you could tell that your suspicions were correct.

"You were right, Ethel did steal my ruby." Morpheus was staring at his hand as he clenched it around something. Quickly after, he shoved the said enigmatic object, most probably the aforementioned jewel, into his jacket pocket. His stare raised to meet yours and you could immediately tell there was a true storm stirring inside him. Dream's normally stern gaze appeared clouded in some strange way as if he was incapable of truly seeing the world around him at the moment. "You, humans, are so stupid and greedy, always desiring things you have no need for and lack the understanding to tame. Nothing in this universe could satiate your entitlement. You are a danger to yourself and any other living being."

His words were hurtful but not for long. As you calmly exhaled, you realized that his judgement really was clouded. Confronting Ethel must have scratched open wounds he never bothered to heal and now in a truly regal manner, the king of Dreaming was unfairly bleeding on someone who never once held a blade to his pale skin. His anger, never seeing the light of day before, rot into fiery contempt that burned his lungs with each breath. That same decayed feeling of powerlessness made him bite the hand that broke the blade with which he was cut. For some, perhaps, it could be ungratefulness but you knew better: it was fear. More than anything, Morpheus appeared terrified of having his scarce trust burnt into ashes.

"I should have killed her," he added quietly with a wavering voice. Was it truly his will or was it the rotting anger spilling from unkempt thoughts?

Dream's eyes were bloodshot and surprisingly teary. He stared at you with a clenched jaw but you didn't feel scared of him. No, the sight made your sympathy for him all the more intense. In that one moment, when those red eyes bore into you, it didn't feel like he was warning you but rather silently begging to be proved wrong, to have his hope restored in the smallest fraction. A king was pleading for your help.

"This hunger..." you slowly began as you walked towards him and carefully placed your hands on his shoulders. At first, you felt him tense up but the nervousness left his body soon after. "It isn't you." You shook your head slightly, probably without even realizing you were doing it. Despite your visible disapproval, a soft expression remained on your face. Actually, the more time you spent with Morpheus the harder it became to stare at him in any other manner.

"You do not know me, human," he bit back as he took one step backwards to get away from your touch. It was hard to say whether he hated the intimacy itself or the feelings it elicited from him.

"Perhaps I do not, at least not in the way I desire." Unconsciously, you looked away for a short moment. Your untamed imagination had freed itself and began running amok, conjuring colourful courses of events where you would be able to proudly say that you know him. "But if I have learned anything about you, dear Morpheus, it's that you are not a cruel creature. Killing Ethel for her misdeeds might be just but is it right?" Something about the way you looked at him while saying these words made Morpheus feel something akin to shame. Was he truly calloused enough to ponder murder in the presence of someone who was incapable of holding a grudge? "I know you have a heart, dear Morpheus. And I know I've touched it once."

As much as he refused to admit it, you were partially right. You didn't simply touch his heart, what nonsense such euphemism was, you cradled it with gentleness unknown to humankind. Even more! You could have stabbed his heart and Morpheus wouldn't exactly mind it. How he wished you would retort to savagery, bite into him so deep he'd bleed out on the altar of your glory just to feel your existence in his own. But no, you touched his heart, treated it as your own and handed it back to him as if you were naively expecting Morpheus to suddenly believe in the ridiculous notion that he wasn't loveable despite something - that he deserved to have his sins kissed on their eyelids.

You looked at the old clock standing on the mantlepiece above the fireplace. Oddly enough, you couldn't recall whether you had placed enough firewood inside on the previous day for it to still be burning. "It's nearly 5pm. Will you stay for tea?"

He silently sat on the ugly floral sofa as you put the kettle on the stove. For a moment, you weren't saying anything as you were preparing tea and Morpheus began reading a little too much into your quietness, pondering whether you were upset with him but soon after he'd dismiss those thoughts trying to convince himself that he didn't care. You were only a human, no matter how bizarre and he was an eldritch king, no matter how lonely. The few minutes you spent making tea felt weirdly long for him.

"The world is a calloused place, my dear," you said as you placed the tea set in front of Morpheus on the small table. "But there is a lot of good in it, too. Maybe we are incapable of making it kind in our lifetimes but neither are we permitted to abandon this quest. Not necessarily for our comfort, no, but for the better lives of those who come after us, so that their world might be a little warmer, a little kinder. So that they do not have to suffer in the ways that we did. Biscuit?"

Absentmindedly, Morpheus took the ginger biscuit from you. Although he appeared to maybe agree with you or at least he accepted the possibility of you being right, the truth was completely opposite: he was certain you could never be correct about this one thing. When you're gone, there won't be anyone 'after' - Morpheus was sure that no one like you will ever walk Earth again. And when he's gone, there won't be much of anything at all.

Then his thoughts turned bleak as he remembered the effect of the curse put on you. Those thoughts he couldn't chase away no matter how much he tried: you were going to be gone much sooner than he'd wish even if he considered the fact that you were mortal. The sweet taste of the ginger biscuit quickly turned bitter in his mouth.